Climate change can impact plant fitness and population persistence directly through changing abiotic conditions and indirectly through its effects on species interactions. Pollination and seed predation are important biotic interactions that can impact plant fitness, but their impact on population g

Premise: Genetic variation influences potential for evolution to rescue populations from impacts of environmental change. Most studies of genetic variation in fitness-related traits focus on either vegetative or floral traits, with few on floral scent. How vegetative and floral traits compare in pot

Many invasive plants are equipped with a suite of mechanisms that can allow them to out-compete native plants. Recently, there has been growing recognition that invasive plants may affect native plants by luring away shared pollinators. The goal of this research was to explore the properties that ma

The link between reproductive and vegetative ecology of flowering plants is rarely explored, despite its importance for understanding population processes and fitness. This link can be studied by using experimental or natural variation in seed input to the soil to assess how reproductive success aff

Climate change is causing many plants to flower earlier in spring, exposing them to novel selection pressures, including—potentially—pollinator shortages. Over 2 years that contrasted in timing of flowering onset, we studied reproductive strategies, pollen limitation, and selection on flowering time

• Premise of the study: Fitness of plant hybrids often depends upon the environment, but physiological mechanisms underlying the differential responses to habitat are poorly understood. We examined physiological responses of Ipomopsis species and hybrids, including reciprocal F1s and F2s, to variati

Summary1. Nitrogen (N) limits primary productivity in many systems and can have dramatic effects on plant–herbivore interactions, but its effects on mutualistic interactions at the community level are not well‐understood. The reproduction of many plants depends on both soil N and pollination, and N

In flowering plants, environment-mediated hybrid fitness plays a large role in hybrid zone dynamics. The relationship of physiological traits to hybrid fitness, however, has not been described for many plant systems. In this study, we investigated the effects of soil moisture on water-use efficiency

There is an incredible diversity of floral morphologies and colors within plant communities of the southwestern, Rocky Mountains. However, little research has been done to quantify exactly how diverse these communities are, and to assess which ecological and phylogenetic processes are structuring th

Previous studies by Pyke et al. have shown that bumblebees exhibit behavior that is consistent with optimal foraging theory. In this most recent effort, bumblebees were observed foraging on vertical inflorescences and their behavior was compared to a predicted model that would result in a maximum ne

Nectar robbing can affect both male and female components of plant reproduction. To understand the mechanisms driving those plant-reproductive outcomes, I studied the effects of nectar robbing on pollen deposition and pollinator behavior in the hummingbird-pollinated host plant Ipomopsis aggregata.

In this study I tested if there is a correlation between bee size and size parameters of flowers the bees visit for pollen. In the plant community evaluated there are not many characteristics restricting the use of pollen by bees. Most of the plants analysed have open corollas and/or present pollen